Reduce Food Waste, Before It Starts

Monthly Archives: December 2014

A new Dunkin’ Donuts store certification program aims to stimulate green building techniques.

After getting two stores LEED-certified since 2008, the Massachusetts-based retailer has parlayed the experience to create its own certification program for franchisees.

The company will roll out the program for new construction projects, with a goal of building 100 certified restaurants by the end of 2016. If all goes well, they also want to extend the program to retrofits at some point.

DD Green, as the new program is called, allows for the integration of “efficiency, sustainability and health in the restaurant development,” said John Herth, senior director for global design and construction services at Dunkin’ Brands.

The five stages of the program include: site development; store efficiency; healthy indoors; sustainable operations; and innovation and community.

For the new green building program, Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees either can meet minimum requirements or do more to get a corporate “DD Green Elite” plaque on their store.

“My passion for creating the DD Green program came from my love for sustainability,” Herth said. “I realize how important it is and believe that as business professionals, we owe it to our planet to do everything possible to improve it.

As architect and construction managers work through implementation, they will focus on the practices now expected of any green building. Employees also will be trained to operate the building efficiently.

Looking forward to see how Dunkin’ Donuts evolves their operations with innovation and technology.

These days we are faced with two competing imperatives – the need to reduce the volume of food wasted every day and the need to stop the depletion of natural resources as result of inefficient waste disposal. Both problems produce their fair share of environmental, social, and financial issues that have yet to be solved. Big Data analytics tied to accurate quantification of solid waste may be the solution for countering food waste and transforming the clumsy energy-laden logistics of waste management.

The historically growing waste industry generates nearly $55 Billion in annual revenue, of which, approximately $16 Billion is derived from the transportation and disposal of the organic fraction of waste. The waste industry has long relied on antiquated, inefficient, and complicated technology strategies such as landfilling and composting as solutions.

Delivering a scalable and low-cost solution that offers share holder value alongside positive environmental results is easy if you consider BioHitech America’s unique solution to food waste which combines green technology with the power of big data to offer transparency, savings, and a safer and sustainable future.

The company’s Eco-Safe Digester Solution, an on-site aerobic digester, eliminates up to 2,400 pounds of food waste in a 24-hour period and is designed to digest a wide range of food types such as fruit, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish an dairy leaving nothing to store or transport. The Eco-Safe Digester then converts food waste into nutrient-neutral water and transports the water safely through standard sewer lines. Managing food waste on-site not only diverts significant volumes of waste from trucks and landfills but also has the ability to increase the awareness of the volumes wasted in order to prevent waste altogether.

What makes the solution superior to other on-site waste removal devices is that each unit is equipped with an on board scale that weighs food waste each time it is added, determining where, when, and what food waste is being disposed. The BioHitech Cloud, a technology platform hosted by Amazon, measures key metrics to optimize the food waste disposal process.

These metrics are providing the industry with an unprecedented level of transparency that not only helps to reduce the amount of waste generated, but improves company-wide efficiency and profitability.

The uniform reporting and comparative analytics provides an accurate audit trail to support environmental directives that tracks savings and utilization while highlighting successes and uncovering anomalies. Organizing and preparing reports is easy and can be designed for single or multiple locations, by geographical areas, by management structure or by season. Reports are also easy to access and can be done from several devices including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

BioHitech America currently provides its innovative solution to numerous high volume generators in various industries in nearly 300 locations across the globe.